Acrid
by Cinerari
Summary: SPCH-verse; Maybe at this point Daiba should have known to always listen to the captain. But what possible harm could a dog do aboard the ship? After all, it was just a harmless little mutt, right?
1. Insert Arm Pun Here

**Oh jeez, I need to throw out a quick warning. While there are no actual pairings or romantic bits in this fic, there are some nudges and jokes involving m/m due to an unintentionally perverted OC, and the bits get kind of awkward. So if that bothers you at all, I suggest you skip this one. Also recommended if you're grossed out by blood and whatnot.**

**But I mostly wanted an overprotective dad-guardian Harlock fic and to be really mean to Daiba, so here it is. Wasn't planning on posting this here, but I got more than one request to so...sorry.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy it a little.**

* * *

When Harlock said no, just a flat no, it was impossible to convince him otherwise, and Daiba knew that. The cabin boy just happened to be as hard-headed as his captain.

"But," Daiba huffed, holding up the puppy right next to his cheek. "He's too young to be on his own." Daiba was determined. He would have this dog. He'd always wanted one. It seemed like something every boy had to have growing up, but his father's reaction had mirrored Harlock's.

He'd held up the small, helpless mutt, pleading with his father. "No," had been the answer. "Put that thing back where you found it. It could have diseases."

Harlock hadn't mentioned diseases. He'd just drawled a simple no. "Look at him!" Daiba insisted.

The captain bothered a glance, taking in the scraggly runt. The tiny mutt couldn't have been more than two months old, but its paws were decently-sized. It would at least be a medium-sized dog once grown. Its coat was a sleek honey-gold, its eyes an intelligent hazel. Though one ear flopped forward rebelliously, the other one pointed up like a satellite atop its head.

It might have made a good guard dog for the accident-prone teen, Harlock mused, but… "Where did you find that?" the captain frowned.

"Over in some bushes back there." Daiba tilted his head to show where he'd found the pup, which eagerly began licking his chin when he brought it protectively to his chest.

"You shouldn't pick up strange animals off alien planets," Harlock scolded dryly. "You don't know where it came from."

"Maybe someone left him here. Come on, Captain. I'll take care of him." As soon as he realized he was starting to pout, he quickly stopped. "If we can have a cat and a bird aboard the ship, why not a dog?"

Harlock didn't seem to mind crushing his youngest crewman's hopes. "Cats and birds don't take up much space, and they don't need the exercise a dog does. They also don't need as much food. I'm certain you could take care of it, but it really isn't a smart move to just pick anything up off a foreign planet. This isn't a debate, Daiba. Put that back where you found it."

"That would be heartless!" the blond cried. "You're going to just leave it here to die?"

"Don't try and paint me as a bad guy here. Sometimes it's better to let nature take over. Don't make me say this again: put that back where you found it."

"But-!" Daiba began, desperation obvious in his voice. "I…" He cowered back under the glare of his captain.

"If I see that dog again," Harlock warned, turning heel back toward his ship, "there will be severe repercussions."

"What happened to doing what we wanted?" Daiba sighed down to the pup cradled in his arms. The dog tilted its head curiously in response before taking an interest in the blond's hair. "I bet it's because he's a cat person," he grumbled as the dog set to gnawing on his hair.

His shoulders and his chin down, Daiba headed back for the small overgrowth of alien plant he'd referred to as bushes. They were a bit too pink to be bushes really. "I'm sorry, boy," he muttered. "I really am."

The dog seemed confused by being set down from where it had been picked up. It tilted its head again, its whip-like tail wagging curiously. Daiba scowled at the ground. He hated when his chest felt empty. "Stop that," he huffed. "Go run off and find your family or something." The dog really did look like the one he'd shown to his father. It just didn't seem right to leave it all alone. Puppies needed someone to look after them.

The rumble of the ship sounded not too far off. He could practically hear Harlock's order for him to get back before they left him. He turned and started back, his fists clenched as though it could keep him from turning back. It might have worked had the tiny thing trailing at the heels of his boots not yipped at him.

Without hesitation, he scooped the dog back up and stormed toward the ship. Harlock was probably on the bridge, he reasoned, so if he could get to his room without anyone noticing, he could hide the dog there. He would train it to be such a damn good dog that Harlock wouldn't be able to say no again. It was his dog, and he would keep it!

"Now what am I going to name you? What am I going to name you?" he muttered to himself as he rushed onto the ship. It started moving only seconds after he'd made it on. Jeez, Harlock really would have left him.

Men were scattered along the hallways, drinking and playing games for the most part. Though they weren't paying him any attention, Daiba probably couldn't have managed to look more conspicuous if he'd tried. The dog exchanged hands constantly to be hidden behind his thin frame, but it didn't seem to mind. It didn't yip or squirm, and Daiba was sure he'd found the best dog he could have asked for.

He hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath until the door to his room closed behind him. He wheezed in uneven gasps. Usually he wasn't all that worried, but the captain had seemed more pissy than usual.

Plopping down on his bed, he pulled the small bundle of fur in close and smiled as it licked his chin some more. "Good boy," he cooed, running the pointed ear between his thumb and forefinger. "Hmm, what am I going to name you? And what am I going to feed you? Well…I guess you'll just get some of my portion. Hope you don't mind Masu's cooking."

The pup yawned, curling its tongue with a soft whine. "Hey," Daiba grinned suddenly. "I should call you Tsuyoshi." The dog was too busy going to sleep to care what its name was, but the teen so was caught up in his own joy that he hardly noticed.

He had a dog now, his very own dog. The captain could just deal with it. Er, well, not really. He'd prefer the captain didn't deal with his dog at all. He couldn't see that ending well, because he wasn't entirely certain the captain wasn't heartless enough to throw a dog out of an airlock.

"Stupid cat people," he grumbled.

The first time he returned to his station on the bridge, Daiba was jumping like a scared cat at every little sound. He was just waiting for someone to drag Tsuyoshi in, or for Harlock to ask how he thought he could get away with something like this. But everything went on as usual. It started to slip back into the same boring routine as always. He relaxed and escaped to his room as soon as he was able.

The pup was waiting just where he'd left it, sitting and calmly stating at the door. "Good boy!" he praised, scooping the bundle up. The pup eagerly wagged its tail.

Daiba knew dogs were intelligent, but he was sure his Tsuyoshi was smarter than any of them. Or maybe he was just really good at training. Sit, rollover, play dead – the pup knew them all within a week. The teen spent all the free time he could get away with in his room, playing fetch with chicken bones and praising his pup.

He did find that Harlock had been right about one thing. Dogs were absolute pigs. He had to give the tiny thing half his own meal, and it would still always whine and ask for more. "I've gotta eat too, Tsuyoshi," he'd sigh. "I'm probably starving more than you here."

The pup grew at a startling rate despite the lack of food. Daiba did like the idea of a large dog, not that his room was really made for it. Tsuyoshi was twice its original size after two weeks, its back reaching the teen's knees. Its teeth seemed even sharper than before, a fact Daiba noticed after he had to bandage his hand to hide the bite marks. He learned quickly not to come between the dog and its food.

"How am I supposed to give you a bath?" he muttered one afternoon as the dog rolled around on the metal flooring. The showers were too far away not to get seen, especially with how big the mutt had gotten. "Maybe if we go while everyone's sleeping."

He tossed a worn bone across the room, watching his dog scamper eagerly toward it. It was quickly returned, dropped in front of him on the bed. Tsuyoshi then took an interest in his bandaged hand. He had to lightly bop the dog on the nose to keep it from chewing on the gauze.

"No," he huffed. "You can chew on bones. Everything else is off limits unless you want to get thrown of the ship."

The dog plopped dog on its haunches, staring. It really did look so intelligent. It would have been such a waste to let it die. "You're a good boy," Daiba offered, ruffling between the two satellite ears. He was glad he'd snuck it onboard. It was nice to have a companion on the ship that wouldn't ridicule him at every turn.

He'd dozed off when Tsuyoshi was nudging him back awake. It was practically his new alarm clock. Not that it mattered. There usually wasn't anything to wake up for. Things had been so boring recently. He was really missing killing swarms of plant bitches.

He dragged himself out of bed, signaling for the dog to stay put while he checked the halls. The drunks dotted the area, snoring up a storm. Daiba figured they'd be safe enough and hauled the heavy mutt into his arms.

The dog did seem to appreciate the shower, but more as a chance to play some more than to get cleaned. Daiba ended up drenched in water after he was tackled into it. He felt like he should have been mad, but it was more fun than he'd had in weeks, so he just laughed it off.

He couldn't imagine why the captain wouldn't want a dog. Dogs were way better than any sake-guzzling bird or cat, and there was plenty of room on the ship. They should have just gotten a ton of dogs.

Tsuyoshi continued growing. Daiba was glad no one bothered to enter his room because his original plan to hide the dog would no longer work. There was nowhere it could hide. Its proud snout now reached the teen's hip while both of them were standing. Did puppies usually grow this big in a month? Daiba just had to assume they did.

The crew had run into a few scuffles, but nothing particularly interesting. Daiba still preferred to stay in his room, finding his dog more enjoyable than the rest of the men. Kei was constantly attempting to pry him into chatting, which he would brush off as quickly as possible. What a pain.

Though no one seemed suspicious of him, he did have quite the problem. Tsuyoshi was always begging for food, and Daiba just couldn't steal anymore than he already was. "No, this is my food," he sighed, pushing the dog's nose away from his plate. "I'm sorry. I'll try to get you some more later."

The mutt whined its disapproval. "Sorr-," Daiba began, only to cut off with a startled choke of pain. He tore his hand away, holding it close to his chest as blood pooled through his fingers. "Shit!" he cried. That last bite mark had just healed up.

Tsuyoshi noisily wolfed down his food, taking no interest in the teen's pain. Daiba was so shocked that by the time the idea of scolding the dog came to mind, it had already finished off his food and was now staring at him. He felt the sudden need to move off the bed, to get out of the room. The dog's eyes shone with an unnatural gleam. A growl rose up in its throat, jagged and dangerous.

Daiba swore the beast was grinning.

It started to change. No, that wasn't the right word. It was morphing, mutating. The muscles under its skin rippled as its joints cracked. The usual slobber that dripped from its tongue began to increase, turning an acrid yellow. He needed to get his gun. He needed to get it now.

The Dragoon sat on his bedside table, behind the freak. He was going to have to shoot with his left hand because his right hurt too much to move, but it wasn't a long shot. If he could just get around…

He noticed the monster beginning to stand on two legs as he jumped up and tried to race past. For a moment, he wasn't sure why he was being pulled back. For a moment everything slowed down. The air flew from his lungs in a sharp wheeze as he was thrown back against the metal wall. His arm was on fire, actually on fire. It must have been. That was the only way to explain the agony tearing through it. If he'd had the breath, he would have screamed.

"Master!" a voice cooed somewhere behind the roaring in his ears. "None of your clothes fit me. You're right, I am getting too big. Oh I suppose these will do." Everything seemed to reach Daiba as though swimming through honey except for the pain. The pain was constant.

"Now look at me, master." He didn't even realize his eyes had been closed until a hand was grabbing him by the chin and forcing him to look upward. He had to squint through his pain, a sharp whine escaping him.

The thing grinning at him looked human, if humans could have smiled so wide with so many pointed teeth. "Aw, don't be upset, little master. I really do like you. I really do. It was so much fun." Its hair was the same color. Its eyes were the same color. No, no it wasn't possible.

Daiba wanted to move his good hand to claw against the pain in his boiling arm, but the thing was kneeling in his lap, running its clawed finger up the line of his throat. "You're my favorite," it purred. "And you do taste exquisite, so I'll save you for last. Here, I'll get rid of all those filthy humans you always complain about. Just for you, master. I can't say I won't enjoy it though."

Daiba whimpered agony as his arm was moved. But once it was in his line of vision, he wondered why so much of it was hurting…when there was so little of it left. His elbow and everything after it was gone, blood pooling out from the end. He couldn't breathe. He wanted to yell and kick and scream, but he couldn't breathe. He couldn't think.

"Shh," the thing whispered almost soothingly. "Hush, master. You don't want to cause a scene. They can't know I'm here after all, or there would be 'severe repercussions'."

The freak grinned and ran its tongue across the root of the blood flow. Suddenly, the burn increased tenfold, as though someone has shoved a red-hot poker straight into his arm. His scream was a sharp whine of breath. This was hell, pure hell.

"Can't have you bleeding out, master," the thing laughed mockingly, jumping to its feet and smearing his blood across its face. "I'll be back as soon as I can," it sang.

Daiba lay on his side, curled up around his ruined arm. He screamed soundlessly until his throat was raw, and still it didn't help. The pain never ebbed, and he could only watch through the blurry wall of tears in his eyes as his pet grabbed the bloody lower half of his arm off the floor and proceeded out into the hall with it. He hoped it was all a dream. He begged for it to be, because he wanted to forget the sight of someone biting through his fingers when he woke up.

But he couldn't…He couldn't let that thing hurt anyone. It would be all his fault. All his fault. His gun was all the way across the room, but he had to get to it. He had to kill that thing. He forced his good arm forward, clawing at the ground. There was nothing to grab hold of, and his glove merely slipped uselessly through the slick of blood covering the floor.

Shoving the heels of his boots against the wall, he pushed himself forward, still clawing uselessly at the ground. He'd never felt so weak, so tired. He'd really never felt so nauseous. His boots got him much farther than his arm ever could. The other, dragging along the floor, made him tremble so much that he couldn't see straight. He choked on a sob as his boots slipped in his blood.

He was so close. It was right there, so close. Just one more push. He tore uselessly at the front of the small table, trying to drag himself up. Finally, his hand found the belt. Now he just had to go find that thing…just had to go kill it. He latched onto the strap, dragging it down with him as he collapsed back to the floor.

It was a good thing he hadn't eaten, because the moment the stump of his arm slammed into the hard metal, the pain overwhelmed him. He choked on bile, coughing up whatever had been in his stomach. With one last strain of energy, he tried to push himself toward the door. When he fell, it still seemed miles away. He didn't care anymore, not about anything.

He just lay there in silent tears, his hand pointlessly outstretched toward the door, the gun belt laced around his thumb. He just wanted to wake up in a world where it had all been a nightmare, because that was all it seemed like it could have been.

* * *

**Uh, yep. My first venture back into third person in a while. I think it went alright for the most part.**

**On a side note, you may not remember so in case you don't, Tsuyoshi is Daiba's father's name. Yeah, that makes everything about five times as awkward, especially since it gets worse. A lot worse. **


	2. It's All About Context

**Did I mention that I already have a few chapters of this written? Because, well, I do. Ahh, I'm blushing so hard at the thought of posting this right now. This first scene... I'm sorry. The person I'm writing this for tosses out some fun ideas that I just have to play around with. Er, thanks for sticking around and reading.**

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Harlock wasn't fond of strangers just appearing on his ship. He really wasn't fond of them just appearing in his room at night either. And he especially didn't like ones with blood smeared about their cheeks and mouth.

This one was frowning at him curiously as it held his wrists up above his head and straddled his waist. Though the disturbing man was at least wearing pants from what Harlock could see, he hadn't bothered to get a shirt. The "get off" on the captain's tongue was interrupted as the stranger finally decided to speak.

"I don't like you," the man said. "But I am curious as to how you taste."

Harlock stumbled for a moment, losing the words lined up in his head.

"You probably would make a fine master though," the stranger purred, his hair a honey blond, sleek and trimmed neatly around his ears. His curious hazel eyes flicked over the captain. "Little master is really more of a pet for me I suppose. Cute little thing – he screams so sweetly. Oh and he tastes quite fine too."

"Are you done?" Harlock growled in discomfort. This guy was surprisingly strong, keeping him from simply breaking free.

"You are rude," the man huffed. "I tried so hard to make myself attractive, and you've done nothing but insult me. Little master loves me though. 'Good boy.' I like the way that sounds. Do you think he'll call me a good boy after I eat you?"

Harlock held back a grimace. "I can't imagine why he would."

"Oh yes, probably not," the man frowned. "Not while he's screaming anyway. Though, then again, maybe he would." A lustful smile swam across his face. "I rather like that idea, screaming and calling me a good boy. Sounds lovely."

Harlock had heard enough of this. "Get off of me, and perhaps we can discuss things like proper men."

"Oh?" the stranger grinned. "Well I never would have called myself a proper man, and if I let you go, I may not be able to catch you again."

"Alright, then at least answer my questions," Harlock growled. "Who are you?"

"I suppose my name is Tsuyoshi. That's what little master calls me anyway. Why do I have to answer questions though? Can't I just eat you? I need to hurry back and you do look heavenly."

"No," the captain snapped. "Now tell me what you're doing here."

"I'm here to eat you."

Alright, that was all Harlock wanted to hear of that. "How did you get here?"

"Little master brought me with him. It was a good thing too. There's so much to eat here. You and little master and well." He laughed. "I suppose the cooking is rather nice too."

Harlock guessed his best bet was to roll off the bed and hope the man let go, but if he didn't the captain could wind up in an even more compromising position. He really needed to get to his gun, which sat in his gun belt draped over the back of the chair beside his bed. If he could only get to it.

Tsuyoshi wet his lips, a line of drool falling from the corner of his mouth. "Oh, I hope you taste good."

Despite the dim lighting, Harlock finally made out the sharpness of the stranger's teeth. This was certainly no man.

Harlock didn't have time to think of anything else. He forced himself into a roll, bracing for the impact of the floor against his back. He hissed as he slammed to the metal, but before he'd even completely recovered, he found the bastard on top of him again.

"This is fun," it laughed, insanity twisting his words. His smile didn't even falter as Harlock held his gun up to point between the blond's eyes.

"Get off of me," the captain demanded.

"Oh, how disappointing." It leaned its forehead into the barrel. "How very disappointing. What a dull way to end the game. So very boring. You're going to kill me? And I haven't even killed any of you yet. Little master will be so disappointed."

"You keep talking about him," Harlock growled. "Who is that?" He wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know all things considered, but if someone had let this freak onto his ship, he needed to know who.

"Aww, but if I tell you, you'll be mean to him," Tsuyoshi pouted. "You're always mean to him."

"If I'm 'mean' to anyone it's because they deserve it."

"No, little master doesn't deserve that, so you have to promise that after you kill me, you won't give him any of your 'severe repercussions'."

"…Daiba," Harlock realized, his frown deepening into a scowl. How many times did he need to say to leave that damn dog behind?

"Hm, yes, it is unfortunate that I couldn't finish both of you off. He'll be so disappointed. I suppose I can't have just one little taste from you, can I?"

"No," Harlock said simply.

"Such a boring way to end the game," it smiled, tilting its head. "Too boring. I don't like it."

"Too bad." The captain easily pulled the trigger, scowling at the blood spray against his pants. The thing fell back onto his legs, a ghost of a smile still evident on its lips.

Harlock kicked it off and stood. Daiba would be lucky if he came out of his punishment in one piece.

On his way to the teen's room, he banged his fist a few times against the infirmary door. "Zero," he yelled. "There's a body in my room. Could you take care of it?"

"Yeah," came the slurred response.

Harlock continued on, his spurs ringing with each solid thunk of his boots. He must have been going too easy on Daiba. That boy was going to learn not to go against orders for sure this time.

But when the door slid open, the scolding on his tongue disappeared along with his scowl. In hindsight, maybe he should have taken more notice of the blood and the actual meaning behind that thing's words.

There was a startling amount of blood smeared across the floor, obviously stemming from the place the teen's arm should have been. He was lying with his face down against the metal floor, his gun belt settled in his limp, outstretched hand. Every inch of visible skin was a ghostly pale.

"Daiba," Harlock snapped, commanding the boy respond. Kneeling at his side, the captain grabbed his crewman's shoulder and forced him to roll over. A soft whine escaped his lips, but he didn't react otherwise.

Harlock growled slightly in irritation. It was obvious the boy had been crying, and the captain supposed he had fair reason to. As he scooped the small form up, he glanced back around the room, wondering how most of an arm could just disappear.

"Captain," Daiba whimpered, redrawing his attention. "I've gotta…kill my dad."

"I killed your dog if that's what you mean," Harlock frowned. He headed back toward the infirmary, his youngest crewman lolling in his arms like a ragdoll.

"I'm sorry," the teen slurred. "I didn't think…"

"That's right, you didn't, and you didn't listen to me either," the captain scolded, though his words didn't hold the biting edge he'd planned for them to.

"Are you gonna throw me out of the air lock?"

"No, Daiba."

"Are you gonna shoot me?"

"I'm not going to kill you. Right now it's more important to keep you alive." Dr. Zero had a long night ahead of him. Harlock only hoped they could help Daiba without bringing him too much pain. Surely he'd been through enough already. Surely he'd learned his lesson too, though that didn't mean he was going to escape a lecture as soon as he was healthy again.

"Hm, my arm doesn't really hurt anymore," the teen murmured, fading back into unconscious.

That usually wasn't a good sign.

"Zero!" Harlock yelled as soon as he thought the doctor might be within range.

"What now?" the old man yelled back from his room.

"Daiba."

"Ah, be right there."

Harlock stepped into the infirmary, the familiar scent of antiseptic and sake drowning away the sharp smell of blood covering his crewman. He settled the teen down on the nearest metal slab, turning toward the doctor as the short man dragged himself in.

"Didn't really get a good look at that body," Zero yawned, glancing over his patient. "Could you go get me five bags of type O blood?"

Harlock supposed he would need to be the one to help the doctor, considering no one else was awake. Kei would have been better suited here, so long as she didn't begin fretting over her junior.

"Were you able to identify the species?" he asked, rolling up his blood-stained sleeves and removing his gloves as he went to search for supplies.

"Well no. I didn't get a good look at it because by the time I got there, it had mostly melted through your floor."

The captain furrowed his brow in irritation. This was not his night. He returned with the blood, though it was immediately snatched from his hands. The doctor showed no signs of exhaustion while working. The blood was hooked into Daiba's veins before Harlock could blink.

"It was certainly made up of some sort of strong acid base, that much I could tell." The doctor was frowning deeply as he examined Daiba's arm. "That's most likely the cause of the severe burns here. It did cauterize the wound. However, it also seems to have eaten away at nerves farther up into his arm. If he wants a working prosthetic, I'm either going to have to amputate more of his arm or drill up through to the working area. The latter would make it more painful for him to adjust the prosthetic though."

Harlock nodded. "It's up to him." Nerve-connected prosthetics were often considered more pain than it was worth, except for some who liked to modify them with weapons. Harlock was quite content to have all of his limbs, no matter what praises people had for the metal contraptions. "Any other injuries?" he questioned.

"Nothing apparent. He's definitely lost quite a bit off blood, but that's an easy fix." He drew a sample of what little the teen had left and placed it into the computer. "I think the main problem will be dealing with him when he wakes up."

Harlock could certainly believe that. He could only imagine the teen becoming even more unruly at the loss of his limb, angrier and more violent. He would likely demand a prosthetic, considering he wouldn't have much luck shooting without one.

The doctor's frown deepened as he examined the computer's findings. "I'm going to need to drown him in pain medication until this acid is completely out of his system."

Harlock cocked a brow. "It's still in his system? How's that?"

"Good question. I may need to isolate the acid compound itself to completely understand all of its properties, because it is acting strangely. It almost seems to be…multiplying. Like it's consuming the biomaterial." He paused. "Oh, that's definitely what it's doing. Hopefully a complete blood transfusion will work. Which reminds me, tell the men they need to all give some more blood before I run dry."

"Alright," the captain shrugged. He'd tell Kei to tell them.

"Oh, and considering that everything that acid touches is a biohazard, we're going to decontaminate pretty much this entire area, including the kid and you and your room. I may as well just turn the purification system on to full."

Harlock rubbed at his forehead, trying to fight back a headache and a sigh. "Do what you need to, doctor."

"You can either sit in the decontamination chamber or go out and have a shower in the hall," the doctor offered, returning to his patient. "The system is starting up now."

"Alright," Harlock muttered. "The shower will be faster."

The infirmary was the only room that would escape it for now. It would need to be cleaned once Daiba was not half-dead. But everything else would be drenched in chemicals seeking out that acid.

Harlock could at least take mild amusement from the surprised and enraged yells of his crew as they were awakened by a downpour of the freezing liquid. He simply leaned back against the wall of the hallway and allowed it to soak through his clothing, steam rising in spots were a genetic match was found.

The chemicals reeked of a strong base, like inhaling bleach. Harlock covered his nose and the smile that escaped him as men stumbled out in their boxers only to discover they couldn't escape the shower.

Maybe it was good for all of them to get a proper bath, he mused.

"Captain," Kei greeted as she stepped out of her room, having bothered to completely dress herself. Her hair shimmered, clinging to her face in ringlets due to the downpour.

"Evening, Kei," he nodded.

"Is something happening?"

"You could say that. It seems Daiba brought aboard a dog."

She frowned curiously. "Was it contaminated in some way?"

"As it happened, it wasn't really a dog, and it's acting like some sort of infection. We needed to get rid of all traces of it." No real need to go into detail on that part of the incident.

The sprinklers shut off. A few breathed sighs of relief, but the rest knew what happened next. Kei sighed, clenching her eyes shut in preparation. The vents cranked to life, blasting out whirlwinds. There was no way to talk with the thundering air around them.

When the drying stopped, Harlock ruffled his hair back into place. Kei smoothed the wrinkles in her uniform, her own hair tousled wildly. "That always make me feel like I'm going through a car wash," she muttered. "So, you were saying?"

"If you don't mind having to decontaminate again, Daiba's in the infirmary. You may want to go help the doctor."

Not too surprisingly, worry immediately overtook her expression. "What happened? I-is he alright!?"

Harlock was getting tired of dealing with this situation in its entirety. He just wanted a shower that wouldn't make him reek of chemicals, and he particularly didn't want to be the one to break this to Kei.

"He was badly injured, but nothing life-threatening. Go and see him for yourself. You can come get me when he regains consciousness."

She nodded curtly before rushing into the infirmary. The rest of the men were stumbling back toward their beds, unconcerned with the reason for their rude awakening.

Harlock headed back toward his own room. He'd gotten enough sleep, or at least, he wasn't going to be getting any more. He frowned at the hole in the floor beside his bed, about the size of the body he'd left there. It faded into the pitch darkness of the lower levels, but the chemicals still would have found anything down there. Something was bothering him though, and after he'd showered, he sat himself down with a glass of wine, trying to figure out what it could be.

One glass turned to ten as their form of night became their day. Men began to rouse, bustling in the halls. He stared at the hole again, expecting for something to crawl out from it at any moment. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but it seemed to him that the paranoid lived longer.

After finishing off another glass, he headed out toward the bridge. He must have been giving off an aura of his irritation because no one bothered him. Even Miime just stuck to her alcohol, hiccuping on occasion.

Intruders always put him on edge, and at the rate things were going he'd stay that way until Daiba woke up, which wasn't really in the teen's best interests at this point.

* * *

**Harlock can't hold in all these lectures! I really am sorry for the beginning bit. I was torn between labeling this as drama or humor because a lot of it is just me screwing around. I have too much fun making up functions for the ship.**


	3. Like Five Whole Drugs

**Still around, are you? I applaud your tenacity. I like this chapter because it contains less awkward and more Daiba being dumb as rocks. Drugs are bad, kids.**

**I'm being dumb. Anyway, thanks for reading.**

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Daiba's head was swimming. His entire body felt leaden, stuffed. He couldn't remember what it was, but something was very wrong. He needed to do…something. It was important!

A batch of slurred, unintelligible words tumbled from his mouth as he fought to sit up. "Oh, hush," a familiar voice scolded as he was pushed by down by firm hands against his shoulders. "You stay right there."

His vision titled and swayed as though they'd landed on an ocean. "Wha's goin' on?" he frowned, squinting in attempt to make Kei stay in one place.

She smiled down at him, relief easing the tension in her shoulders. "The doctor gave you an…ill-advised amount of drugs. How are you feeling?"

"Drunk." He clicked his tongue with the word. "Heavy."

"Do you think you could tell me about what happened?"

He blinked a few times. "Somethin' happened. It did." Something important. His arm was itching, but he couldn't seem to find it. He pawed for it with his left hand.

"Daiba," she whispered. "Your arm was amputated."

The teen considered it for a moment. That didn't sound quite right. He moved his arm up into his line of vision, forced to twist his neck awkwardly to see it. Only half of his upper was arm left. "Huh."

He wasn't really sure why Kei looked so concerned when he started laughing. "Look," he grinned, moving the piece of his limb. "It's a stub."

"Oh, it's not going to be good when those drugs wear off," Kei sighed.

"Wait," Daiba stopped suddenly, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. "My dog… The captain killed my dog." His expression sobered. He hadn't even gotten to show the captain how great his dog was.

"Daiba, your dog tore your arm off," Kei remarked dryly.

"Oh. Yeah, that's right." Disgust overtook his expression. "I let that thing sleep in my bed with me. It was a guy. It was a man dog and it slept in my bed!"

"What?" Kei frowned in confusion. "He was a male dog?"

"No! He was a man dog! A dog man!"

"Well, the captain said it wasn't really a dog-"

"But he was a dog! Then he wasn't. Then he was a pervert." Daiba nodded as though everything coming out of his mouth was perfectly logical. "And he ate my arm."

"He ate it?" Kei choked.

"Yeah, well he kind of ripped it off first, and then he ate it."

Daiba didn't seem particularly bothered by any of it. Kei could only stare in horror, her jaw unhinged. "B-Before you tell me anymore about this," she finally managed, "the captain wanted to talk with you when you woke up."

"Oh, he's going to kill me," the younger pouted.

"I don't think so." She gently smoothed his hair down. "Now you stay right here, and don't try to move around too much. You don't need to be trying when you're so drugged up."

He gave a wobbly smile. "I like you, Kei. I'm glad he didn't eat you."

She giggled lightly. "I'm glad he didn't eat me too."

"Are you glad he didn't eat all of me?"

"Yes, Daiba, now behave."

While she was gone, he wriggled what was left of his right arm, laughing at it, though he wasn't entirely sure why. He really wasn't in the mood to just lie down, so he stood on wobbly legs and stumbled over to the doctor's cabinets. After a few disappointing attempts, he grabbed a roll of bandages between his stub and left arm, grinning at his achievement. Maybe if he impressed the captain with it, he wouldn't be thrown off the ship.

A bright yip from behind him seemed to share his enthusiasm. His heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly found himself tumbling into a supply cart covered in syringes. The glass tools shattered in hail against the floor.

It yipped again, whipping its tail back and forth. It looked even younger than when he'd first found it, barely the size of his boot.

"N-no!" he squeaked, backing himself into a corner as Tsuyoshi drew close, prancing its way easily through the broken glass. Daiba's voice trilled. "Don't touch me! No!"

The pup stopped, plopping down on its haunches just a few inches from him. It stared up curiously. Daiba could only cower against the wall in sheer terror. "Stay away from me!" he howled.

Tsuyoshi let out another squeaky bark.

Daiba screamed.

He knocked half of the medical supplies from their shelves in his stumbling rush toward the door. His feet seemed determined to trip over each other, and it didn't help that his right side felt so much lighter.

He finally tripped his way into the hall, nearly slamming his face into the opposite wall. Why did all of the halls have to look so similar? Not that he was concerned with where he was going as long as he got away from that dog man. That thing was behind him. Right behind him. It was chasing him. It was going to eat him. And it would be grinning the whole time.

He couldn't really see or tell how long he'd been running. His vision was a massive blur of color, but he recognized that red and black smear. "Captain!" he wailed.

"Daiba?" Harlock drawled as his crewman slammed into him. The teen, however, still didn't feel safe. He rushed behind his captain, hiding himself beneath the worn cape.

"Captain!" he whimpered. "He's gonna eat me!"

Harlock stared at the small trail of bloody footprints leading toward him as the teen trembled like a leaf, cowering against his back. "Who?" the captain frowned.

"The dog man!"

"Daiba, I killed that thing."

"Noooo!" his youngest crewman sobbed. "He was gonna eat me! He was in the infirmary, and-and-"

"Calm down," Harlock ordered, keeping any harshness from his voice. Despite his attempts to turn or pull away, Daiba stayed glued to his back. "You're on heavy doses of multiple drugs. Dr. Zero said you would likely hallucinate." He was also so doped up that his nerves were deadened from pain, and he must have cut his feet open on something without noticing.

"No, he was there! It wasn't a hallulu…lull…hallucinan…ations… He's gonna eat me captain!"

Harlock sighed. Kei had said that Daiba was a bit out of it but mostly lucid. This was obviously no longer the case. It was ruining the lecture he'd been looking forward to.

Kei had also requested that he be as nice as possible. Right. It would take some effort.

"Come out from under there and I'll check the room, alright?"

A wide hazel eye peered out from Harlock's side, followed slowly by its opposite. Reaching back, the captain dragged the rest of his crewman forward against frantic, slurred protests.

"I am getting tired of carrying you," the taller man noted as he gathered the smaller up. But he did need to keep Daiba off his feet, which were still dripping blood onto the foggy metal. Hopefully someone would bother to clean that up.

"But if he eats your leg off, we'll both fall," Daiba whined.

Harlock raised a brow at how serious his crewman seemed. "I wouldn't worry about it. I do wear spurs."

Daiba's shaking returned as they neared the infirmary. Harlock simply wondered where the doctor had run off to. He didn't usually lecture crew older than him, but his irritation was bubbling. There wouldn't be much use in lashing out at Daiba with the teen's mind mostly lost to drugs. Someone needed to get in trouble.

When the door slid open, the trembling pirate flinched away, throwing his arms up in front of his face. "There's nothing here," Harlock noted. It did look like a whirlwind had blown through the room though. His eye followed the spotted trail of footprints to a cluster of glass shards on the floor.

Daiba peered out nervously, his eyes darting to every corner. "B-but he was. He was here! I saw him!"

The captain settled his crewman back into a stiff white bed and moved to examine his feet. "He's gone," Harlock said, frowning at the chunks of glass embedded in the teen's skin. "It was just a hallucination. It's fine."

"It wasn't a h-halluc-c-!" Harlock hid his sigh as his youngest crewman burst into tears, rubbing them away with the back of his hand like a child. "H-he was here a-and he was gonna eat me!"

"Even if it was here," the captain attempted, "it's not now, and it won't be eating you. I'll make sure it doesn't." Being properly consoling was not his forte. His desire to tell Daiba to stop crying and be a man was rising, but he had a feeling it would only make things worse, and he really just wanted the tears to stop.

"But what if he eats you!" the teen wailed.

Harlock thought for a moment. "He can't eat me."

"Yes he can!"

"No, he can't. I'm immune to him." Might as well try to use the drugs to his advantage.

"Really?" Daiba sniffled.

Harlock hadn't actually expected for that to work. "Yes. Really." The captain fought down the urge to throw up his hands and Daiba's sobs returned worse than before. "What now, Daiba?"

"You're g-gonna throw m-me off the ship!"

"No I'm-"

"But you shouldn't!" the teen interjected frantically. "Cause I can be useful! I-I can pick stuff up, Captain!"

Harlock blinked. "Pick stuff up?"

"I'll show you!"

Harlock jumped to push his crewman back down as he tried to get up. "You can't be on your feet," he scolded.

"B-but I have to-to show you that I'm not useless," Daiba whimpered. "I can pick stuff up, captain, with my right arm."

Harlock winced against the pleading words and urged the teen to lie back until he complied. "You don't have to worry about that, Daiba. You can get a prosthetic that will work just as well as your arm did. I'm not going to throw you out just because you're handicapped at the moment." He might have thrown the blond out for the dog, but he tried not to focus on that.

"O-okay," Daiba hiccupped, rubbing away the tears. "Captain?"

"Yes?"

He waved his amputated arm with a sniffle. "Look, captain, I'm stumped."

Harlock wondered if his urge to slap the teen was showing through his twitchy, forced smile. "Daiba."

"Yeah?"

"Don't do that."

The captain placed a hand to his face as his crewman, again, burst into tears. He was not dealing with this.

Harlock found himself unable to leave due to Daiba's fear that the dog would return. To make his point clear, he grabbed his captain's cape and yanked him back when the taller man attempted it. Harlock would simply have to wait until the doctor decided to return.

In the meantime, he sat and listened to his crewman's stories of how great his dog had been before it had tried to eat him. "He was a pervert," Daiba concluded with a nod.

Harlock had to agree with him there.

A moment later the teen started singing some song that listed off major stars in certain constellations. "And Aries has Sheratan, Hamal, Mesartim," he sang, bouncing slightly to the tune. "Pleiades stays with Hyades and Aldebaran, in the Tau-rus con-stella-tion."

Harlock wondered what sins he'd committed in order to be subjected to this. He also hoped his crewman's singing was being influenced by the drugs. Because it didn't seem possible to have that many cracked pitches in a song.

When the doctor did walk through the infirmary door, Daiba had moved on to talking about his father refusing to let him have a dog. The captain made his displeasure with Zero quite clear through the violent glare he threw the doctor's way.

"Hi, doc!" Daiba grinned, waving his stub. "Do you want to hear a song?"

"Give him something," Harlock hissed to Zero, jumping up and trying to escape.

"Captain," the teen whined, somehow regaining his hold on the cape. "Don't leave. What if he comes back?"

"Well, I've already given him quite a bit…" Zero frowned. "What happened to his feet?"

"Later," Harlock growled. "The bleeding's stopped. Right now, give him something – anything to calm him down."

"I…could," the doctor said, uncertain. He sighed at the sight of his infirmary. "I'll need to get some more needles though."

"I don't like needles," Daiba whispered like it was some sort of secret.

"You'll be fine," the captain remarked, tugging on his cape. Maybe he could just remove it and leave it with his crewman.

"I like candy better," the teen nodded.

Harlock had long since given up on trying to properly communicate with him until he was sober.

When the doctor returned with a fresh vial of some clear yellow liquid, Daiba screamed. Harlock jolted then rushed to hold the teen down before he could fall off the bed.

"No!" the terrified pirate begged, fighting desperately. Harlock wheezed against the foot that slammed into his gut.

They were forced to hold his head down in order to stab the syringe into his neck. He shuddered against the injection with a soft whine, tears brimming in his eyes.

Then he just lay there, staring at the wall. Harlock could barely see any of the chestnut irises around his crewman's massively dilated pupils. The teen dreamily brought up his hand in front of his face and began pawing with it.

"Daiba?" Harlock frowned

"Cap…captain." His words slurred as though his mouth was filled with honey. "How many fingers are you supposed to have?"

"What is that drug?" the man hissed down to the doctor.

Zero rubbed a hand across his face. "Well, it's just a usual sedative, but combined with everything else…"

Daiba's head rolled slowly toward them, his eyes wide with interest. "Captain…why are you so tall? You're like…five whole talls. You could like…step on everyone else if you weren't looking."

"Is he going to be okay?" Harlock muttered.

"On a technical level, yes," the doctor muttered back.

"Did you know…that my mom used to put me in dresses. I was so pretty…" He smiled dreamily. "Capt…tain, you would look good in a dress… Your clothes remind me of Dracula."

The captain found himself deeply regretting his request. The whole thing was reminiscent of a train wreck.

"Dresses are breezy… We should all wear dresses… My uniform rides up." As he spoke, he clawed at the empty air where his arm should have been. "Capt…Cappy…Cat… My arm itches, but it's not there. It's like magic… Do you think magic is real? Cause if it's not, then how are the walls changing colors?"

"Well," Harlock drawled. "I'll leave this to you then, doctor."

Daiba returned his interests to his multitude of fingers. "I wonder how much of my hand I could fit in my mouth."

"Please don't," the doctor sighed.

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**If there were writing licenses, I would have had mine taken away a long time ago.**


	4. Bad Dog

**This chapter wins the awkward award. Someone needs to explain to dogman that he is no longer a dog and his behavior is not really acceptable in human form. **

**This is still acceptable as rated T, right? Anyway, thanks for reading.**

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Daiba felt like shit. No matter how tightly he crushed the pillow to his face, he couldn't ease the pounding in his skull. It was worse than any hangover he'd ever experienced, and his entire body felt fuzzy on top of that.

"Come on," the doctor grumbled, "You haven't eaten in almost two days."

"Not hungry," he huffed, his voice muffled by the pillow. "Leave me alone."

"I can always feed you through tubes."

The teen glared out from his hiding spot at the doctor and the tray in his hands. It was just some rice and vegetables, things that would be easy on his stomach. They didn't look all that appetizing though.

Giving in, he sat up and allowed the tray to be placed across his lap. The doctor gave a sigh of relief before moving to the other room to return to work on the prosthetic. He'd been interrupted so much that he'd barely gotten any work done.

The last couple days had been a bit foggy for Daiba. He recalled seeing Kei and the captain, but mostly he remembered seeing Tsuyoshi. Maybe it had all been a hallucination, every bit of it. It was so blurry in his mind that he guessed it must have been. He hoped it was anyway. He remembered feeling airy and amused and frightened in strange, distant fragments of memory, not that he could exactly recall why.

His feet hurt too. He wasn't sure he wanted to know all the specifics actually.

Trying to use chopsticks with his left hand was, well, impossible. He began cursing and spitting at the food and himself each time the rice fell. He was really just making a mess. The vegetables weren't any easier. He was getting fed up with this. Hell, he had more water in his stomach than anything. His curses swelled. "Well, just fuck this!" he screeched.

As his captain stepped through the door, a bowl of rice flew past the man's ear and out into the hall, shattering against the metal wall.

"Daiba," Harlock greeted, frowning.

"I'll clean it up," the teen muttered.

"Having trouble?"

The aggravated blond stabbed a cucumber with the ends of his chopsticks. "If you've come here to tell me you told me so, just leave. I get it."

"As long as you've realized your mistake, I-"

"Oh yeah," Daiba snorted. "Listen to what the captain says cause he's not straight up gonna tell you when he knows you've picked up a flesh-eating dog alien thing."

"I didn't know what sort of alien it was," Harlock said. "I couldn't even be certain that it was an alien. I just thought it was odd for it to be on an uninhabited planet. I thought you would listen to my order without needing further explanation."

The carrot Daiba had stabbed fell off before it reached his mouth, and in a rage he began stabbing at all the vegetables with the small sticks. "Fuck this!" he roared. "Fucking goddamn useless dumbass bastard! Can't even fucking eat!"

The captain waited for him to calm to a simmering rage. "Once you get your prosthetic, you won't have any problems. Just have a little patience."

"What do you want exactly?" the teen sighed in irritation. "Did you come to laugh at me?"

"And why would you think that?"

"Well what other reason could you have?"

Harlock almost missed the obnoxious drunken child from the previous day. Almost. "Even though you obviously know the immediate consequences of what happened, I do need to discuss more about that creature with you. We haven't been able to identify its species, even with the samples we picked up, and I can't be sure it wasn't some sort of spy."

Daiba's lip curled in annoyance. "Spy? Like hell. I don't know what he was, but he wasn't here to get any information. He was a dog up until he started trying to eat me. Stayed in my room the whole time."

"But you weren't in your room the whole time," Harlock countered. "You can't confirm that he was a dog at all times."

"Ugh, don't remind me." The teen squirmed in discomfort. "I don't think he was a spy. He really just seemed interested in…eating me."

"Yes," the captain frowned, "that did seem to be his primary interest."

"You met him?" Daiba murmured, still uncomfortable with the topic. He didn't like thinking about his dog, about the way the thing had talked or grinned or looked at him. Its eyes had wavered somewhere between hunger and affection.

He suddenly remembered seeing the freak gnawing on his arm, and his hand flew to his mouth, holding back the gags shaking his entire body. The captain attempted to give him something to throw up into, but the twisting of his stomach beat out the captain, and he emptied what little was in it onto his tray.

With a sigh, the man gingerly took his crewman's food and replaced it with a trash can. "You alright now?" he asked the green-faced teen.

"H-he ate my arm," Daiba whimpered, shuddering. "H-he just p-picked it up a-and-"

Harlock glanced away as the young pirate choked on more bile. The captain had certainly seen worse, much worse. Daiba was fairly naïve in that respect. But he was sure seeing his own arm be chewed on was disturbing. "He didn't mention anything about his species, did he?" the brunette asked, trying to change the subject.

"N-no, I don't think so…God, h-he said I tasted-"

"Daiba," Harlock sighed as the retching continued. "Try to stop thinking about it. He's very dead. We made sure of it."

"Y-yeah," the teen choked, wiping off his face with the back of his hand. "He's gone. He's gone. I-it's just…he said he'd be back."

Harlock clapped a hand to the teen's thin shoulder. He wondered how many times he'd need to go over this point. "I killed him, so you should take my word over his. He won't come near you. Now wait for a moment while I get Zero."

"If you let that doctor put one more drug in me, I'll throw up on him." The blond stuck out his tongue. "I need a toothbrush."

There, that sounded more like Daiba. The captain tried to hide a smile.

The doctor forced some pills into the whining teen to fight any more nausea. "I have to go to the bathroom," Daiba continued to complain. "I want a shower!"

"You're not going to be on your feet while your stitches are healing up," the man reeking of alcohol scolded. He gestured irritably to a wheelchair. "Captain, take him down to the baths."

"Me?" Harlock blinked.

"He can't steer himself with one arm," Zero grumbled, "and I need to get this prosthetic done, unless you have something better to do."

"I'll bet can steer with one arm!" Daiba shrieked in offense.

The captain rubbed away a headache. "No…I'll do it." He really didn't have anything better to do, and he couldn't ask Kei to do something like this. Besides, she was probably working.

"I really could do this myself," the teen muttered as he was helped into the wheelchair.

"I'm sure you could," Harlock nodded. It would just take an hour or two extra.

The embarrassment on his crewman's face was obvious as he was wheeled out toward the bathroom, and as soon as he was placed onto the bath's edge, he shooed his captain away. "I can do the rest myself."

"Good."

Though Daiba immediately found removing his baggy hospital sweats was harder than he'd originally assumed. He tugged and grumbled, falling back into the cool plastic of the tub. When he'd finally managed to strip himself, he was still lying in it with his legs splayed over the edge. With a sigh, he reached up and turned the water on.

The only soap nearby smelled fruity, but no one needed to know that he liked the scent. He was about to start rubbing the shampoo through his hair when a form appeared at his back and fingers were scratching through his scalp. "You smell great, little master," he cooed.

The cogs of Daiba's stunned mind turned slowly.

Dog man.

In bath.

Touching.

Naked.

Pervert.

Naked!

His scream became more of a squeak as he tore away, falling into the sudsy water. "Oh? Do you want to play, little master?" Tsuyoshi asked excitedly as the young pirate gasped for air.

Slipping over in the tub, Daiba could only manage to grab hold of the bar soap and hurl it at the dog man's sparkling hazel eyes. He looked a bit younger than before, no more than 18, and he only laughed and tilted his head to dodge the projectile. "My turn!" he grinned.

"No!" the teen screamed as he was tackled by the larger male. He hit the back wall of the tub with a gentle thud, Tsuyoshi held him firmly down by the shoulders. "Let go of me!" His attempt at a kick was grabbed in one hand while his wrists were bound above him with the other. His next command became a whispered scream.

"You're funny, little master," it smiled, leaning close. As always, he nuzzled the small pirate's chin, showing his submission.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Daiba commanded, feeling sick.

"Oh?" the dog man blinked. "You want me on top?" Its eyes lit up. "You should have said something."

"C-captain!" the teen screeched in sheer terror. "Captain! Dog man! Naked! Captain!" Daiba was sure he felt a heart attack coming on.

Harlock tore the sliding door open, his hand hovering over his gun. He hadn't honestly expected to see that thing. He hadn't expected to see it holding his youngest crewman in such a compromising position either. "Hey!" it greeted, grinning. "You wanna come play too?"

This time, the tears in Daiba's eyes seemed well-justified, and Harlock stormed forward with gun in hand, blasting without further thought at the sick bastard touching his crewman. As soon as he was close enough, he yanked the teen out, holding him up under a protective arm. Daiba held a violent grip to it as he dangled above the tiled floor.

"That's not how you play!" Tsuyoshi scolded, dodging most shots with ease. Even the blasts that hit didn't slow him down, and he regenerated within moments. "Oh, I get it!" he laughed. "You're the alpha dog! Can't touch the alpha dog's things!" Still, he shrank back, collapsing into a puddle of the acidic yellow substance and disappearing down the drain.

Keeping his gun pointed toward the tub, Harlock whipped off his cape and covered his youngest pirate in it as he settled him down on the nearby sink's edge. Daiba clung to the tattered fabric like a life raft, his eyes wide and rimmed red with tears. He shook so much that his small form seemed to vibrate, and his face was a bright, stunning scarlet. "D-don't let him touch me," he stuttered.

"I won't," the captain snarled. He tried to keep his grip light as he again gathered the trembling teen up. There was no way he'd leave the trouble magnet anywhere on his own now.

He'd dropped the change of clothes in the hall, and irritatingly, no one had bothered to check on the commotion. He would need to get onto them for that. After retrieving the clothes and placing them on his crewman's stomach, the two returned to the bathroom.

They sat in silence except for the occasional sniffle that escaped the teen. After helping him into his pants, Harlock dragged the black sweater over his head and pulled him into the sleeves, one of which flopped, empty. "Did he do anything?" the captain finally asked as he ruffled his crewman's hair dry with a fluffed towel.

"N-no," Daiba whispered, his voice shaking. His face still radiated heat from the violent blush that covered his face, neck and ears. "I don't know what he was going to do. I'm sorry, captain. I-I just got so scared. D-damn it, I-I just froze up."

"Fear is normal," Harlock murmured. "If you can fight back against a bastard like that despite your fear, that makes you brave. I promise you, I will hunt him down. He won't touch you again."

His blush faded as he rubbed his hand harshly across his face as though to wipe it away. "I'm tired, captain. I'm tired of being scared. I don't want him to hurt anyone. I'm so stupid. Should have never brought him on board. So stupid."

Yes, stupid, but his intentions had been good, Harlock thought as he carried him back to the wheelchair. Once seated, Daiba brought up both his legs, hugging them with his arm under his knees. "I'll bet the doctor's almost done with your prosthetic by now," the captain attempted as he set off into the hall.

"Do those hurt? I've heard they hurt."

"I wouldn't know, but I've heard that too. I've also heard you can have a variety of weapons installed in them."

"Think the doctor would let me have that?" the teen asked, managing a nervous smile.

"I don't think you need anything major, but considering the circumstances, well," the captain smiled, "I suppose it was a good thing I asked for that retractable knife to be equipped." He'd ruined the surprise, but he supposed something to cheer his crewman up would be good at that moment.

"I'll just stab him next time," Daiba muttered, regaining his confidence. "You won't even need to kill him. I'll do it myself."

"Men should put their own dogs down," Harlock mused. "It's not a job to be left to someone else. But I won't feel bad if I manage to take him out first."

"I would. I want to be the one to kill him. Hmm, I'm hungry," the teen grumbled.

"You know the doctor will want a full briefing of what happened before he'll let you do anything else."

Daiba sighed, curling over in his chair as sleep began to take hold again. "Do I have to? Oh, I wonder if that rice I threw out here is still there."

"You're not going to eat that."

"Why not? I'm starving. Haven't really had a proper meal in weeks."

Apparently it didn't matter if there were drugs involved or not. There was no logical reasoning with Daiba.

"You know what, Captain? I'm not even all that clean. I didn't actually get to finish my bath."

"I'm not going to guard you while you take a bath," Harlock muttered.

Daiba scrunched his nose. "Ew, I didn't say that."

"Well, I can't very well leave you alone. Every time I do, that thing shows up."

"That was kind of the point I guess," the teen sighed. "None of you were supposed to see him, so I kept him hidden."

Harlock considered it. "You think we can lure him out if we just leave you alone for a while?"

"C-can we not? L-later. We can do that later."

"Sounds like a fair plan," Harlock nodded. Besides, he still needed to blow off a bit of steam before he'd even think of letting that freak near his youngest crewman again.

* * *

**And thus commences protective dad-guardian vs. preverted dogman master. This goes about as well as expected.**


	5. Give 'em a Hand

**Hm, this chapter is surprisingly tame. Well, if you don't count torturing Daiba I guess. Whee prosthetic limbs~ **

**Thanks for reading!**

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The arm was a smooth, foggy silver. Even the joints didn't break the sleek theme. They rolled and twisted on balls so as not to leave any gaps. Daiba's heart swelled at the sight of it. His new arm, maybe even a little bit better than his old one.

The doctor allowed him to play with it for a bit, bend the fingers and make sure the hand was just the right size. "Where's the knife?" he asked, grinning.

"Already heard about that, did you?" the doctor hummed. "I'll show you after you learn how to use the arm itself. Now, this is going to connect to your nerves automatically. After it does, it should move like your natural arm. If it doesn't, tell me. It's going to be odd at first, but you'll get used to it."

The old drunk fitted the teen's stump into hollow end of the new arm. Daiba couldn't feel anything except for the slight chill of the metal. He tensed, his nerves on high.

His captain sat across the room, watching uncertainly. The doctor had advised that Kei not be present for this and that Daiba not be told too many specifics. Harlock wasn't sure he wanted to see it either, but the doctor had requested his presence, and he did need to keep an eye out for that dog anyway.

The whole thing was starting to feel like a horror movie. "I won't be able to hold him down if something goes wrong," Zero had said. They couldn't simply sedate him. The nerves and muscles needed to be fully active for the procedure to work. Harlock just hoped that his youngest crewman would immediately pass out.

"Relax as best you can," the doctor advised.

Daiba closed his eyes, imagining clenching his right hand into a fist and then letting it go. He breathed deeply as his heart fluttered. Pretty soon he'd be able to eat and get dressed without any problems. Then he would show that bastard.

Pain.

Suddenly.

Agonizingly.

Like a million needles hand just been shoved into the end of his arm. His breathing staggered. His eyes flew open. He caught sight of his captain for a moment, looking deeply sympathetic. It was an odd expression on him.

Then the needles began to worm their way up through his arm, feeling more like red-hot pokers crawling through his muscles. Curling in on himself, he screamed and clawed at the needles, tearing at his skin with his left hand. Agony throbbed through his entire body. Dear God, just make it stop.

His wrist was grabbed, forcing his hand away. He wrestled desperately in an attempt to break free. Just tear the arm out, his mind screamed. But he couldn't get away from the hold. He was forced to his back, his good arm pinned down.

Then the needles each made a final jab, snapping into place. Daiba's scream was a soft cry before he collapsed, shuddering in slight tremors from the remnants of pain. Someone was calling his name.

"Daiba… Daiba, look up here. Look at me." There was no rush to it, just a gentle order. He tried to focus his gaze toward the sound, but his heart was pounding so violently in his chest that all of his energy was focused on just trying to get enough breath, and his eyelids fluttered uselessly. Everything swam around him.

"He's hyperventilating," another voice barked. A moment later he felt something placed around his mouth. The air became clearer. Slowly, the dizziness faded, and he was able to open his eyes. The doctor frowned down at him on one side, the captain smiling slightly on the other

"You're alright, Daiba," the captain called soothingly.

The weakened teen smiled twitchily, tinges of pain shooting through his arm as he tried to lift it. He couldn't tell whether it was heavy because of the metal or just because of how exhausted he was, but he managed to slowly raise it.

The shining new metal reached up between the three of them as he stretched his palm open toward the ceiling. He couldn't really feel the action. There was no tensing of his muscles. The entire limb seemed numbed.

He clenched his hand into a fist before his strength gave out, and the limb collapsed to his side. The heaviness grew as the air began to taste more stale and sweet.

"I need a drink. You're stressing me out," he heard the doctor say as he faded toward sleep.

"Rest well," the captain ordered.

Harlock waited until he was sure Daiba was asleep to speak again. "You didn't need to knock him out after all that."

Zero paused in the doorway, frowning. "Hm, I suppose not. I'd really planned on him passing out by the middle if not the beginning. I figured he deserved some rest."

The captain decided to let him take his leave and went back to his seat across the room. Daiba would be in trouble if anyone attacked the Arcadia, because he was sure Tsuyoshi would show up the moment he wasn't in sight. He'd simply have to wait until he had a good way to catch the mongrel.

Then again, the dog had apparently decided to break the rules. Harlock immediately rose to his feet and moved to stand between the creature and his crewman as the humanoid beast stepped out of the back room wearing and old lab coat and black pants that the captain irritably realized were his own. The thing was back to full size now, frowning sternly as its eyes evenly met his.

"You're an awful alpha," it scolded. "How dare you hurt my pet like that!"

"Aren't you the one who removed his arm in the first place?" Harlock shot back.

The dog's anger grew. "That was a sign of affection. You were simply causing him pain."

The captain's hand hovered over his gun. "We're trying to help him because you caused him harm. That's some sort of twisted affection you've got. What are you?"

Tsuyoshi tilted its head curiously. "I'm whatever I need to be. My pet wished for a dog, so I gave him a dog. My pet wished for all of you to stop being cruel to him, so I tried to fulfill that as well. You ruined it though. Took me some time to recover from that." It shook its head. "And my affection is that of its purest form. I wish for that which I love to become a part of me, and I a part of it. That is how my species exists."

"Well, if you haven't noticed, we're not a part of your species," Harlock growled.

"Oh, I know," the dog purred. "You taste much better."

"But you don't seem to have realized that Daiba doesn't like you. He doesn't want to be eaten, and he doesn't want anything from you. In fact, he just wants you dead, and so do I."

"That's rather rude, alpha," Tsuyoshi laughed. "I know you don't like me, but don't push your feelings onto my pet. I know he loves me. He told me I was a good boy. I was a good dog. But you're in the way. You've always been in the way."

Harlock's eyes narrowed. "I won't let you lay a hand on him or any of the rest of my crew."

A smile spread across his face, revealing his fangs. "Oh, I'll just eat them after I eat you."

"What happened to affection? You just eat everything."

"Oh, I just eat things like you because they taste good. My little pet's going to get a special treatment. Slowly, so I can hear him scream."

Harlock had heard enough from this bastard. He pulled his gun, aiming for its head again.

"You think that's going to work a second time?" Tsuyoshi hummed in amusement. "I don't transform myself completely human anymore, so I don't have any vital organs for you to hit. Takes less time to change this way."

"I could always turn that chemical bath back on," the captain sneered. "There's no outcome where you win here. I will kill you."

"Confidence breeds carelessness, and keeping a master away from his pet is a death sentence where I come from."

Harlock was too irritated to be even remotely afraid. He just wanted to kill the freak, but unless he turned on that chemical shower again, there was no way to do so. The control board was across the room, behind him. He took a calm step back. "And what's the punishment for trying to take someone away from his alpha?"

"Depends who wins," it laughed.

As Tsuyoshi spoke, the captain spun and leapt onto the edge of Daiba's bed to hurdle over it. An inhuman growl rose up behind him. He reached the console and tore through the list of the most recently used commands. He never felt a presence closing in. It didn't seem right. By now those fangs should have sunk into his skin, or at least gotten near enough to.

With his hand hovering over the key that would turn the shower on, he glanced back, hoping the dog had run. Instead he heard another growl. "Damn," he hissed.

Tsuyoshi, now truly a dog again, sat by its pet, its fangs bared as they hung over Daiba's neck. The creature's eyes were turned up toward the captain. Harlock understood. If that thing was going to die, it was going to take his youngest crewman with it.

Dog and man started each other down hatefully, each waiting for the other to move. Harlock gave in first, guessing the creature couldn't speak in that form. "You don't want to just kill him though, do you?"

Its glare moved to his hand, still over the command key.

"I'll back away if you do the same." Harlock could see no route to victory this round. They were at a stalemate, and his best option was to call it a draw. He couldn't risk Daiba getting his throat torn out.

He took the first step back, his hand withdrawing slowly. In turn, the dog took a retreating step, crawling off the bed. They both drew away at the same sluggish pace until Tsuyoshi turned and scampered through the door he'd come from. Harlock breathed an inaudible sigh of relief before checking Daiba's neck to make sure the acid hadn't come in contact with him.

He couldn't see a solution to this. The only chance he had was to lure the creature into a trap, somewhere with no possible escape routes. Except it could move through any space – vents or drains – or even melt itself an means of escape. He could attempt to sterilize the entire ship, but there were places to hide from even that.

Unless he could convince the creature to fight with actual honor and decency, he was out of options.

When Daiba finally dragged himself back into consciousness, his first goal was to get his arm moving. His eyes weren't even fully open before he was trying to pull the limb upward. He practiced moving it, watching each finger bend with interest as the captain explained what had happened while he was asleep.

At the end of the tale, he sighed. "Probably would be better if I was dead at this point. He's causing so much trouble."

"If you were dead, I think it would just kill us quicker," Harlock mused.

The teen began bending his elbow back and forth, getting a feel for the lack of feeling. "Maybe… Surprised he hasn't attacked anyone already."

"I just put an order out that everyone stick in pairs or groups at all times and that any suspicious activity be reported. Masu mentioned that quite a bit of food had disappeared recently."

"Hmph, that pig," Daiba grumbled. Moving his hand closer to his face, he finally found what he'd been looking for.

"Wait!" Harlock barked as his crewman pressed the button on his wrist. The sharp note of metal against metal sounded as the knife shot out from Daiba's hand. It would have plunged into his face had the captain not shoved his hand to the side. "Daiba!" the older man scolded.

But the teen was transfixed by his new weapon. It was housed in his forearm and about the size of it, a long thin blade. Harlock frowned at it. He'd requested a knife, not a machete.

"Wow," Daiba murmured, his awed gaze spreading into a bright smile. "This is great, Captain."

The end had a mostly-pointless handle for him to grab hold of, though it was connected into his arm so as not to be separated anyway. Despite that, he held onto it as he curiously cut the air, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.

His captain sighed. "Just don't point it at your face. And you shouldn't bring it out unless absolutely necessary. That is a weapon. It's not for show. It's…"

He trailed off as he realized not a single word was reaching his youngest crewman. Daiba was absolutely infatuated with the sliver blade, and he whistled sound effects as he pretended to slice with it.

But Harlock supposed Daiba deserved some little joys, and the captain watched in mild amusement while the young man played. Finally, the teen woke up from his daydream, his eyes bright with excitement as they turned on the captain.

"Can you teach me how to sword fight?"

"Well, it's not really a sword," Harlock frowned, considering it. "I suppose I could still teach you how to use it properly. You just have to promise you won't use it otherwise unless it's an emergency."

The teen nodded eagerly. "So uh…how do I put it back?"

Harlock blinked. "I'm not sure. Try the same button."

He clicked it a few times without any luck. The only solution seemed to be to press the end of the blade against the metal railing of his bed, trying to force it back in.

"Daiba, stop," the captain commanded dryly.

Instead, the teen grabbed the flat of the weapon and tried pushing it back in that way.

"Daiba. Stop."

"How does this work!?" he cried, exasperated. Beating his new arm against the bed's railing didn't help either.

"Daiba."

"Stupid thing!" He changed tactics to hitting the railing harder until Harlock sighed and grabbed the arm.

"I think there's a switch here," the captain muttered, pulling back on the thumb. The blade retracted sharply, causing Daiba to jolt at the sudden sting of movement that rattled his nerves.

"How'd you see that?" he huffed.

"I looked for it before I resorted to trying to destroy a new piece of equipment."

"Well, it caused me enough pain. I should get to cause it some back!"

Harlock couldn't even think of a suitable response.

"Now I can kill that pervert!" the teen grinned.

"With a knife?"

"Yeah!"

The captain sighed again. "Perhaps we should have a little discussion about strategy and alien life forms."

"Why?" Daiba frowned. "I think we should just go kill him. I mean, my knife is pretty great. I'd like to see him recover from that."

Harlock could only place his hand to his face and shake his head.

"Oh, hey," the teen murmured, staring at his hands. A soft smile spread across his features. "I can play my harmonica now. Er…could I?"

"Would you like to go get it?" the captain smiled in return.

"Am I allowed to get on my feet now?"

"No, but I'll take you to it."

* * *

**Please excuse all the cute fatherly Harlock. I'm not going to apologize for it though. I'm not going to apologize for the bad pun in the chapter title either.**


	6. Go Out with a Bang

**Would you look at that? I actually finished a multi-chapter fic. My usual rambling and silliness are in tact because I was half-asleep when I wrote a lot of this. Mm, quality.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading the whole thing. Gosh, really, I'm flattered. Hope you took some sort of entertainment out of it. I apologize for any mistakes and hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Kei placed her palm against the metal hand, lining up her fingers with the shorter, broader ones. "It's very nice," she offered as Daiba stared at her curiously, a slight blush to his cheeks. "Cold though."

"Yeah," he mumbled, drawing the hand away. "It's still kind of weird to use. I can't feel things, so I can't just reach out blindly. Sometimes I can't tell how tightly I'm grabbing things too. And it gets really damn cold sometimes."

"What about where it's connected?" There was a slightly uneven spot in the arm of his uniform, not really visible unless you were looking for it. Even the hand was pretty unnoticeable when hidden when under his glove.

"Hurts sometimes," he confessed, "but nothing much. I've gotten used to it."

Kei didn't like that it caused him any pain. She didn't like that he'd needed a mechanical arm at all. It was upsetting to her that only the captain and Daiba had seen the thing that caused it, because she really wanted to shoot the dog…creature. Honestly, what on Earth was it?

"Have we seen any sign of the dog?" she inquired. Harlock shook his head as she glanced his way, and Daiba sighed. It was still on the ship somewhere. The captain was even hesitant to make their next stop because he was worried it would try to drag someone off or eat some unsuspecting inhabitant.

Daiba was now allowed on his feet again, though they were still neatly wrapped, and he was supposed to keep seated as much as possible. He'd happily returned to his station on the bridge. Anything away from the infirmary was heaven. The dimmer grays off the bridge practically felt warm against the bright whites of the med bay.

"Maybe I should try drawing him out," the teen murmured. "That way we'll at least know where he is."

Harlock had considered it – drawing the dog into a room with his youngest crewman and turning on the chemical showers. But no matter what sort of wall he could try and put between the two, if Tsuyoshi reached Daiba before the chemicals killed him, the beast would kill the teen. He would not allow that.

"I'd prefer we not do anything until we have a proper plan for how to deal with him," the captain voiced. Kei nodded in agreement.

"I dunno," Daiba mumbled. "I feel like I could maybe talk to him. He used to listen to everything I said when he was my dog." Of course, just killing Tsuyoshi would have been preferable, but since the captain had explained that it was nearly impossible, the young pirate was getting a little desperate.

"Well he sees you as the pet now," Harlock countered. "And he's shown before that he'll only listen to the orders he wants to. We can't trust him to listen to a single thing you say. He'll go by his own agenda."

The teen's eyes dropped to his hands, curled together in his lap. He was tired of this, tired of constantly being watched. He could barely get a second alone. Sure before he'd practically begged for protection from Tsuyoshi, but now he was getting somewhat desperate to be free of the constant guard at his heels. It was just really, really uncomfortable having to go to sleep with the captain standing not too far off.

But mostly, he was tired of being worried. So far the only person to be injured was him, but that could change at any moment. As much as the thought of facing Tsuyoshi terrified him, he would rather the dog took his life than anyone else's. He had to keep that thing from hurting anyone, because it was his dog and his responsibility. He had promised he'd take care of the mutt from the beginning.

The dog meanwhile, who'd become a rather popular subject around the ship, was quite enjoying his fame. He crawled around through pipes and vents, stealing what interested him and eavesdropping when his ears perked up to the sound of "that dog" or "that thing."

He found it amusing that a few wondered if he even existed. After all, only the captain and the kid had seen him. Tsuyoshi thought that was mostly due to how unobservant they all were. His pet had pulled him out into the halls multiple times in plain view. They were all just too stupid to pay attention.

He often considered killing them. Even in a group, they'd be easy to take out. They'd all have their throats dissolved before they could even raise their weapons, not that the guns would have an effect. Only the outer layer of his body wasn't made of his base form now. He'd recover from any attack in an instant.

Except that horrid chemical they'd managed to catch him with. Quite a bit of him had been destroyed as he'd raced away from the substance. It had taken days of gorging himself in the kitchen to fix that.

Mostly, he liked to keep an eye on his pet and the alpha. Or rather, he would have preferred to just keep an eye on his pet, but the alpha was always there too. Any hopes of playing games like they used to were ruined by the alpha, always looming nearby. He was such a selfish man.

Tsuyoshi's pet belonged to him just as much as the tiny thing belonged to his alpha. He had every right to go and take little Tadashi away, though there wasn't anywhere to escape to. So why not just go ahead and kill the alpha? Well, he'd had numerous opportunities. Really, the captain wouldn't be much trouble, but the dog was starting to feel conflicted.

In a way, he liked the alpha, but he also wanted to kill the man first. He had to be the first one to die, to set an example for the rest that the little human was very much his. The problem was the soft voice, murmuring to him at night when the alpha was too far away to hear.

His little pet must have known he was always nearby. The dog would lean against the inside of the wall, just behind Tadashi's bed, and the little thing would tell him, firmly but quietly, amusing orders to let everyone live.

"I don't want you to kill them," he'd grumble. "You can kill me instead. Next time we stop at a planet, we can get off, and we'll settle this. Don't hurt any of them. If you do, you're a bad dog."

Tsuyoshi most certainly did not want to be a bad dog. But he was the master now. He had every right to do as he pleased, and he would absolutely kill his pet, slowly and lovingly. But not killing the rest? Why, that didn't sound fun at all.

He really wished to speak with his pet in private. Maybe he'd be able to restrain himself from taking the other arm. Maybe… He wasn't making any promises.

So the night little Tadashi scolded, "And you can't kill the captain either. You're especially not allowed to kill him or Kei," Tsuyoshi decided he would answer back.

"Can I eat the cat then?" he whispered, his voice barely audible to his own ears.

A pause followed. He must have shocked the poor thing.

"No," came the answer, quieter than he'd been speaking before. "You can't eat Mi-kun either."

"The bird?"

"No. Don't eat anything that's breathing. Just stuff from the kitchen."

"So the old woman-"

"No!" the teen huffed

"But there's not near enough in there," the dog pouted. "Your supplies are starting to run low."

"Then that means we'll stop to restock soon. Just be patient."

"If I do, will you call me a good boy?" Tsuyoshi purred.

"Sure whatever," Tadashi grumbled, exasperated. "Now be quiet."

"I miss sleeping with you. You were warm."

"I'm not hearing this."

"I miss licking your face too."

"Bad dog!"

"Daiba?" the alpha called. Tsuyoshi laughed and snuck back to his base near the engine as his pet spluttered an excuse.

The dog had been building up quite a stockpile of stolen objects, and he sifted through them, wondering if there was some sort of gift he could present his Tadashi. He did feel a little guilt for not keeping his promise to come back and eat the rest of the teen. He'd make up for that promise soon enough, but he wanted to regain his pet's favor.

Flipping through one of the so-called magazines, the dog frowned at the strange presentation of the human women. His race didn't have genders, so maybe this was important. Maybe his pet would like him better as a female. He'd ask later.

His latest prize was the silvery noise-maker that he'd taken from his pet's room while the boy was away. Though he'd watched Tadashi play it, he wasn't sure he'd be able to unless he changed his saliva back to its humanoid structure. Didn't want to dissolve his pet's things.

Tossing the object back into the pile, he followed its path and curled himself onto his objects. Sleep wasn't necessary, nor was it possible, but he rested for a while in hopes of shooing away the boredom. He truly did miss playing games with his pet. Simple, mindless games like fetch had been more fun than they should have been. Perhaps he should have just stayed in his dog form forever.

Perhaps.

But then he wouldn't have gotten to devour his pet.

Some uncountable hours later, he stalked curiously to the engine room. There was something about the flashing, humming machine that captured his attention. At his approach, it whirred louder, seeming angry. Tsuyoshi laughed.

"You don't like me on your ship either?" he purred.

The lights blinked unintelligibly.

"Well, I'll be leaving soon. Just can't decide who I want to leave behind. Should I leave anyone behind? Oh, I just can't decide."

The machine seemed to growl.

The dog considered it for a moment, a slow smile easing over his features. "I think…everyone who's seen me should be devoured. Yes, that seems fair. That includes you, dear."

He turned his eyes toward the small gasp of surprise. "It's a shame," he hummed in amusement. "The two he was begging me to let live are the two I have to kill."

Kei slipped out from her hiding place, her gun at the ready. No one should have been in the engine room at that time, but the creature wasn't really someone. She'd heard his light conversation with no one from out in the hall. This was the thing that had been after Daiba. She would have shot him dead right there, but she knew better. Her gun would do nothing.

It grinned at her, its fangs gleaming in the flashing lights of the dim room. "You won't get away with this," she hissed, raising her gun.

"What are you going to do with that, dear? Nothing rash I hope. You are a lovely creature, but you shouldn't sneak around. Curiosity killed the cat – that's the phrase, isn't it?"

She shook just the slightest amount. Tsuyoshi could smell the sweat at her back. "Don't fret, dear," he cooed. "I'll make it quick."

"The captain will kill you," she growled, reaffirming her grip.

"I look forward to seeing him try."

He rushed her, before she could even comprehend that she needed to turn and run. His form morphed into the familiar dog, and within two leaps, he was at her neck.

Kei closed her eyes. She felt the heat of the dog's breath against her throat. Her skin prickled as the fangs closed in.

Then her neck was cold again.

When she opened her eyes, the room was pitch black, as though she'd fallen into the endless darkness of the empty areas of space. She could hardly imagine there was a floor beneath her feet. Was she dead?

The strangled growl of the dog from across the room said otherwise. Without further thought, she turned, desperate to find her way out. The door opened for her, flooding the area with the relief of light before she'd even neared it. She continued running until she burst into the captain's room.

"You're open," the man scolded, lightly smacking Daiba on the back of the head with the round side of his saber.

Kei caught her breath as she watched the two, too engrossed in their game to notice her.

"Because you threw me off-balance!" the teen huffed, lunging toward his captain with a sweeping strike of the shorter but wider blade.

"There are no excuses in fighting of any form. Your opponent isn't going to go easy on you." The strike was easily thrown up by a flick of the saber. "You're open again. Don't bite your tongue," Harlock advised before elbowing up beneath the teen's chin.

Daiba stumbled back, seeing stars. "Well, my opponent's not going to be you," he muttered, working his jaw.

"If you think you're going to be able to beat anyone, even lower than me, with the skills you have, you're sorely mistaken. You can't just throw out random jabs without thought. Swordplay isn't as simple as shooting. You need to have skill, certainly, but a large degree of that skill is about outsmarting your opponent."

"It's a lot easier to outsmart a plant bitch than you," the teen grumbled. "Why didn't I get a gun in my arm? Swords are dumb."

The captain smiled lightly. "You're a bit too trigger happy for a gun. Maybe for your next arm."

"Next arm?" The color drained from Daiba's face.

"You're still growing. You're going to need new ones installed every now and then to keep up with that."

"C-captain," Kei interrupted, still somewhat out of breath. "T-the dog. I saw the dog!"

Both males blinked, turning to her in surprise. "Where?" Harlock demanded.

"In the engine room. He tried to kill me, but…" But what? Something stopped him. Something… She shook herself free of the thought. "He said he'd decided to only kill the people that have seen him."

Daiba's eyes hollowed. The three of them. His dog would kill the three of them.

No, he refused.

"Daiba?" Harlock warned as the teen stormed toward the door.

"He's my dog. I'll kill him." The other two followed quickly at his heels as his furious steps echoed through the halls. The blade's handle was clenched violently in his grip.

"Daiba!" Kei called. "We should make- no, we need to make a plan. You can't just stab him!"

The youngest pirate wasn't listening. It didn't matter if he couldn't stab Tsuyoshi. He would kill the dog no matter what it took, because it was absolutely not going to hurt Kei or the captain.

Harlock decided to let his crewman do as he pleased. The creature didn't usually stay in one place for very long anyway. It probably wouldn't still be in the engine room. At least, he hoped not.

As soon as Daiba's foot landed in the engine room, now relit, he brought up his good hand to his mouth, placing his thumb and middle finger between his lips and whistling sharply. "Come 'ere, boy!" he demanded.

To both Kei and the captain's relief, there was no sign of the dog as they followed him into the room. There was no sign of what had kept it from harming the young woman either. "Come on, Daiba," she urged. "There's nothing to do here. Let's work out a plan and-"

"I'll settle this now!" the teen roared. "I'm sick and tired of this!"

Harlock was about to agree with his female officer, when something made him pause, his hand shooting for his blade. He spun sharply at the scraping of claws against metal, but the drawn saber did nothing against the dog as its fangs embedded into his shoulder.

White hot flashes of pain tore across his vision. His shoulder erupted in fire from the brutal stinging of the acid. It was a battle to keep the darkness at the edge of his vision from overtaking it.

"Captain!" Kei cried.

Harlock shoved the dog away with a pained growl before falling to one knee, gripping at his shoulder to ease the blood pouring through his fingers.

"T-Tsuyoshi," Daiba gasped, regaining his senses. The dog turned to him, its eyes wild with fury. Acid dripped from its bloodied muzzle, burning the floor below. Something had pissed his dog off royally.

"No!" the teen cried as it turned to rush Kei.

Harlock stumbled to his feet, wavering there as his saber hanging uselessly in his grasp, but Daiba could move. The captain could only watch as Kei was thrown out of the way by his youngest crewman slamming into her side. His momentum carried them nearly out of the way.

Nearly, but not quite.

The dog's fangs sill caught the edge of Daiba's neck, tearing across it in a cut deep enough to almost bring the teen to his knees. He clutched for the escaping blood as he stumbled back.

For a moment, the three pirates only exchanged glances. Harlock's eye fought back a fog, desperately ordering his crewmen to run. Kei's wide eyes only held horror, but Daiba's were determined, resigned.

With a few stuttered breaths, he regained his strength. "Tsuyoshi." His voice was firm. "Come on, boy." A smile broke out on his face. "Let's play!"

The dog's anger faded into curiosity as Daiba began stepping back toward the door. "Let's play fetch, boy! Come on, see if you can catch me."

"Daiba!" Harlock yelled as Kei cried the same.

He gave them a final smile before spinning around and running from the room, the steady blood flow at his neck all but forgotten. Tsuyoshi let out a bright, excited bark, its tail whipping. Both Harlock and Kei lunged for it as it rushed past, but it simply phased through them.

The dog's pet wanted to play. Tsuyoshi had truly missed playing. One final game. He would win, and he would devour his plaything.

The men in the halls were first startled by Daiba with blood streaming down his neck, then the bloodied dog racing after him. The command of "Catch them!" that the men would pass down in a yell always came far too late.

Daiba felt like he was flying. Pure adrenaline rushed through his veins, and he simply ran. Tsuyoshi was having a blast just trying to keep up. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he panted with a mad grin.

To an outside eye, both appeared to be having fun.

Harlock didn't care about the wound in his shoulder. He too was running on adrenaline, and he was determined to have Daiba brought back in one piece. "Kei!" he barked not too soon after the boy and his dog had fled out the door. "Get that chemical shower turned on, and tell the men to catch them!"

She nodded shakily before running out into the hall to relay the orders. A silent prayer repeated on loop in her head. "Just let him be alright. Just let him be alright."

Daiba was sure they'd try to decontaminate. It wouldn't work. Tsuyoshi would just slip back into the pipes. And since so many men had now seen him, they couldn't afford to let that happen. "Come on, boy!" he called, whipping into a turn. The dog's claws scraped across the metal floor in a quick bid to slow himself and follow. He let out an excited yip.

Harlock had staggered toward the doorway, but the whirring engine behind him made him pause and look back at the flashing machine. His frown deepened, his eye widening. "Kei!" he yelled, stumbling into the hall.

"Captain?"

"Lock the hangar!"

"W-what?"

"He's going to take a wolf. Lock the hangar! Now!"

Daiba didn't bother with a suit. His dog would have caught him if he had anyway. He simply scampered up into the cockpit of an old space wolf. Ruining a newer one would really upset some of the mechanics.

He sealed the top and pressed the command to open the hangar, flicking on the plane's engine at the same time. "Shit," he grumbled as the hangar began to close before it had even opened halfway. "You guys are trying to kill yourselves."

The throttle was slammed forward, shooting him out just as the dock was sealed shut. Daiba let out a slight sigh of relief, then another as a familiar voice popped up behind his ear. "That was fun, little pet!"

"Sure, whatever you say," Daiba muttered, his exhaustion returning. He kept the small craft moving forward at top speed. The fuel tank was full. He'd get far enough, far enough to keep everyone safe.

"Do you want me to clean your neck?" the dog purred, resting its chin on the shoulder of his pet's chair and taking in the scent of pure blood.

"I'd prefer you didn't," the teen sighed. "Can you at least not use the acid?"

"But your human saliva would take ages to dissolve you," Tsuyoshi pouted.

Daiba merely breathed a laugh. "I guess it would." Sleeping sounded nice, but he needed to stay conscious for a bit longer. He could see how white his hand was as he absentmindedly fiddled with a few controls. That cut must have been deeper than he'd thought. Not that it mattered.

"You know," he sighed. "I told you not to hurt the captain or Kei, but at least you didn't really hurt them. I think the captain'll recover alright."

"It's too bad. I really wanted to eat them."

"I'm glad you didn't. Thanks for that."

He'd meant it sarcastically, but Tsuyoshi's didn't understand. Hazel eyes sparkled. "Thank you, pet!"

Daiba had to shove the dog's face away to keep Tsuyoshi from hugging him. "Quit it, pervert."

The dog man wasn't put off. "So where are we going, little pet?"

"Somewhere quiet," the teen whispered.

Tsuyoshi smiled as he morphed back into his dog form and loped to his pet's feet, placing his head in the teen's lap. Daiba grumbled a bit, but began absentmindedly patting between the furry ears.

They didn't have enough fuel to make it to a planet. There weren't any nearby. And he couldn't allow the Arcadia to catch them. That would just put Tsuyoshi back where he was.

"I really did like you when you weren't eating my arm," the blond muttered.

He was mildly surprised by the dog's throaty growl forming into some semblance of words. "I really liked eating your arm."

"I guess it was meant to never work out then." He glanced up at his coordinates. They were plenty far away now. Tsuyoshi watched curiously as his pet began typing in a new command. The dog cocked its head in a silent question.

"No offense, but dying by having you eat me doesn't sound pleasant," Daiba smiled. "And that would still leave you alive. So, would an explosion kill you?"

Tsuyoshi didn't seem surprised or upset. He'd morphed his vocal cords to partially work with human words, though his lack of proper mouth still made them garbled. "It could. Depends on the blast."

The craft's computer let them both know that the self-destruct sequence had been activated.

"Why would a machine even have that function?" the dog questioned.

"For situations like this, I suppose," Daiba sighed, leaning back in his seat as the exhaustion began to take hold of his limbs.

The dog nuzzled his metal hand, urging the teen to pet him until he complied. "You're a good dog," he felt himself murmur. "A terrible person, but a good dog."

"You're a good human," his dog replied softly. "My favorite human. It would be waste to have you die like this."

In reality, the brave face Daiba was putting on was due to the blood loss. He was too tired to be as scared as he should have been. He didn't want to die. There were still things to do, plants to kill. But at the moment, it seemed like a fine way to die. Because death meant sleep, and he was so tired.

The beeping of the self-destruct warning increased, but the young pirate already couldn't hear it. He was quietly drifting off, his hand still settled limply atop his dog's head.

Tsuyoshi hopped into his lap, nuzzling his master's jaw contentedly. He did very much like his human. Pet or master – it really didn't matter. Either way, it was his human, and he refused to have this be his human's death.

He could have killed Tadashi then. Yes, but that wouldn't have been any fun. The point was to devour what was his out of love, and there was simply no time for that. How upsetting.

"Your alpha had better do his job," Tsuyoshi growled. "You're his pup. He should be the one protecting you."

By that time, Daiba's alpha and everyone else had seen the self-destruct signal, but space wolves were quick, and the craft was already too far out for them to do much of anything. The teen had overridden their ability to shut off the self-destruct remotely.

There was no chance, but Harlock had a weakness for refusing to give up. "Warp to their location then," he snapped. "I don't care what it takes. Get us over there."

"We won't be able to warp over there in time," one of the men advised. It was a short jump. The wolf hadn't gone too far, but it was far enough that a warp would be faster than even cruising at full speed.

"I don't care," the captain hissed through gritted teeth. He was losing to that bastard dog. He was losing his youngest crewman because Daiba had to do just what he'd been told. He was putting his own dog down. Harlock was losing.

Pain pulsed through his shoulder as he clenched his hand into a fist. God damn it. God damn it! He wasn't supposed to lose fights like this.

Kei, trying to keep her mind off what was happening, had set to forcefully bandaging his shoulder since he'd refused medical attention. She was just as irritable as her captain, and it showed through her harsh movements. If Daiba didn't come back alive, she was going to kill him.

Time slowed as the air on the bridge thickened with tension. "Twenty seconds to warp," someone finally confessed.

That was too long. Harlock felt Kei's movement slow. "When we get there," she whispered. "Is there going to be anything left?"

"Fifteen seconds."

The captain closed his eye. "It's not likely." Perhaps it would have been better not to go over there at all. The blast radius of a space wolf would wipe out everything. No pieces to pick up. No body to collect.

"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven-"

A message flashed on the main computer. The counting stopped, but time continued. As they finally warped, the message mocked them, flashing in large,bold letters. "Space Wolf 209 has self-destructed."

When the warp had finished rattling her bones, Kei walked toward the computer, feeling distant. Typing in the code was automatic and pointless, but she needed it. The message on the computer changed as the ship's probe scanned the outside.

There was nothing out there. Nothing floating around within their field of view. No sign of even a scrap. But the computer gave a light ping.

While everyone else stared in confused awe, Harlock rushed to the computer, crushing the keys with desperate commands.

"One life sign detected," the screen blinked. The captain grabbed onto that. It was stupid wishful thinking, but there was something out there.

The probe locked in on the source, on the small form drifting among the stars, pale and surely lifeless. But the computer insisted that there was still life there, a small, draining heartbeat.

There was no question of how Daiba had survived the blast. There was no need for orders. Everyone simply sprung to action. Humans couldn't survive space walks unprotected for more than a few minutes. And no one wanted to be on the bad side of Kei and the captain if the teen didn't get pulled in immediately.  
Within two minutes, he was back in his second home of the infirmary. The old doctor took a deep drink of sake at the sight before setting to work again on the battered young pirate.

As Daiba recovered consciousness, he found himself being tackled in a crushing hug. A moment later he was getting slapped across the face as Kei demanded he never do anything stupid like that again.

He frowned in confusion at it all, groggy from blood loss and drugs. He was…alive?

His captain was sighing in relief, smiling at the antics of his youngest crewmen. He gently clapped a hand to the teen shoulder as Daiba rubbed his eyes, mumbling sleepily. "I'm in the damn infirmary again."

"You destroyed another wolf," the captain scolded jokingly.

"Hm, yeah, but did I get 'im?"

"From what we can tell," Harlock nodded.

"That's good."

They paused, each waiting for an explanation from the other. Daiba examined himself curiously. More bandages had joined his old ones, covering large patches of exposed skin and hiding under his clothes. He gave in with a sigh. "So how am I alive?"

"That's a good question," the captain frowned. "We were hoping you could answer it."

The teen shook his head.

"Well," Kei began. "Nearly all of your wounds are burns, but not all of them are from the explosion. Some are acid burns – Tsuyoshi's acid. They're all over your body."

"What does that mean?" Daiba huffed.

The captain shrugged. "Our best guess is that his acid was covering you."

"Ew." The teen wrinkled his nose. "Like he was trying to eat me?"

"Maybe." Or maybe as a shield from the blast, Harlock mused. Not that they'd ever know. The dog had vanished. Only traces of it had remained in the vacuum around the explosion.

Daiba honestly wasn't worried about his wounds or even what had happened. The fact that he was simply alive was enough to make all that seem unimportant. He was in the mood to run around and laugh and drink and just enjoy himself. He'd been so resigned to death, but he was alive. The world just felt a bit brighter.

Kei killed a bit of his high by mentioning that he couldn't be on his feet again for a while, since he'd reopened his stitches while running.

"Is your shoulder okay?" he asked his captain, who showed no signs of being bothered by it.

The man nodded. "Fine."

Daiba waited for elaboration, but Harlock didn't bother. After another moment, the teen grumbled and began to pout. "I don't want to sit in here. I'm tired of the infirmary. Let's go do something!"

The captain smiled lightly in amusement. "Like what?"

"Like – I dunno – Let's go have a party or something!"

"What are we celebrating?"

"Obviously the lack of perverted dog men trying to eat me!"

Kei giggled brightly. "I'll go ask Masu to make a cake then."

As she stepped out, the captain stood and drew a small silver object from his pocket. "Here, I believe this is yours. We found it among the things the dog stole."

Daiba took it with a scowl. That bastard Tsuyoshi had taken his harmonica. He played a lone note to make sure it still worked properly. "Hey, Captain," he huffed.

"Hm?"

"I think the ship does need one rule."

Harlock smirked. "Is that 'no dogs' or 'listen to the captain'?"

Daiba frowned up at his captain, unamused. "I think it should be 'don't be a smartass.'"

With a smile, the older pirate placed a hand atop the teen's head to ruffle his unruly mop of hair. "Just so we're clear. That was an awful decision you made. It was stupid and dangerous and a terrible waste. Don't ever try that again."

"Sorry, Captain," Daiba mumbled.

Harlock's eye softened. "But it was selfless and brave, and I'm truly proud. You did the right thing. I wish you wouldn't have. You should have waited and let us regroup so we could work out a plan, but your decision, however stupid, was the right one."

The young pirate wasn't exactly sure how to react to that. Was he being complimented or scolded or insulted? He peered up between his bangs as his captain. "So you're not going to throw me out of an air lock?"

"No, Daiba."

"And you're not going to shoot me?"

"What's your fascination with me killing you?"

The teen lowered his eyes. "Guess I just always feel like a screw-up."

"It's okay to make mistakes, Daiba. Trust me, I've made plenty. Mistakes are what we learn from, so don't focus on what went wrong. Focus on getting better, because I can't teach you much swordplay at all if you can't be on your feet."

The blond managed his usual determined smirk, clenching his metallic hand into a fist. "Yeah, I'll show those dogs and Mazone not to make me look like a screw-up!"

That hadn't exactly been what the captain had meant. "You're not just planning on killing all the dogs you see, are you?"

"Well, I mean-"

"No."

"But-"

When Kei returned, she found her captain putting the release switch Zero had installed into Daiba's arm to use. Maybe not _good_ use. It was supposed to detach most of the arm in order to allow repairs easily. The captain was simply holding it out of his youngest crewman's reach as Daiba childishly clawed at the air for it.

"Captain!" he whined.

"You can't have it unless you're going to be responsible with it," Harlock scolded.

"That is my _arm_!"

"Promise you're not going to kill dogs without reason."

"I'll kill every last damn dog in the universe if you don't give me my arm right this minute!"

Kei could easily see how much trouble her captain was having trying to hold back a grin. Boys certainly had odd ways of showing they were glad to see the other was alright.

* * *

**I feel like I should take a bow or something, but I'm too busy sighing at dorky space boys. How old are you two? Jeez, you could at least hug or something to show your relief, but no. You're too "manly."**


End file.
